


Sleepless in Insomnia

by ferix79



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Blankets, Chronic Pain, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Ignis is prob neurodivergent also but I havent figured that one out yet, Insomnia, Multi, Neurodiversity, Neurological Disorders, Noctis has chronic pain, Polyamory, Prompto has ADHD, Sensory Issues and Solutions, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepy Cuddles, Weighted Blanket
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 15:55:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11970684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferix79/pseuds/ferix79
Summary: Noctis and Prompto have been struggling to get a good night's sleep for years. Ignis and Gladio have been trying to help them find an answer, but nothing is working out.Ignis' latest idea is a unique blanket for the boys to share, but Noctis and Prompto aren't convinced.----I played with lots of neurodiversity here. Check the tags for more info^^





	Sleepless in Insomnia

**Author's Note:**

> I really enjoyed writing the boy's relationship with lots of neurodiversity. I didn't expand on anything too much here, but these are some really important headcanons to me. I hope you can enjoy them, too.

Sleep, for Prompto and Noctis, was an evasive, unforgiving demon. Sleep, for Ignis, was his greatest enemy.

The three of them—and by extension the four of them, because if three were involved the fourth was roped in regardless—battled sleep all throughout Noctis and Prompto’s high school career, and now beyond graduation. Prompto’s sleeplessness was due to anxiety and an attention disorder; regular teenage worries like fitting in at school and the paper due next week, but also stresses that Ignis only wished he could protect him from. Affording rent and thinking about the future and keeping the weight off and keeping up on medication—

It was a vicious cycle of overthinking and depression, but one that Ignis and Gladio willingly sat through for many nights, comforting and consoling and just _being there_ as a shoulder to cry on.

Noctis was much the same, but his stresses tended towards his father’s degrading health and someday taking over the throne and having to marry who, he didn’t even know. The stress and anxiety threw him into a depression, and depression—not to mention his chronic pain—sapped all his energy. Ignis and Gladio could talk in circles about it for hours—if Noctis lay in bed all day, how could sleep evade him?

The answer didn’t matter. What _did_ matter was watching their prince and best friend lie awake at night, shifting to a new position every five minutes, and descending into tears when pain kept him awake and sleep evaded him. They needed a solution.

And _every_   weekend, Gladio clapped Ignis on the back and reassured him that whatever homeopathic method he researched that week would definitely work. But nothing ever did.

“Maybe there’s something else,” Gladio would say as he and Ignis brewed piping hot tea for the two other boys—a gesture they knew wouldn’t put Noctis and Prompto to sleep, but was comforting, at least.  

Ignis wasn’t so sure some days. They’d tried a _lot_ of methods.

Sleep clinics and studies failed right out of the gate. If Noct and Prom couldn’t sleep in their own beds, surrounded by the ones they loved, how on Eos could they be expected to sleep in some sterilized clinic bed? There was just no chance.

So, on to the home remedies.

Hot tea. White noise in the background. Keeping the TV on low. Warm room. Cold room. Lots of blankets. No blankets. Sleeping in separate beds. Sleeping in one big cuddle pile. A heavy meal before bed. A light meal. Warm milk. Stretching and massage. A hot bath before bed. Changing medication. More exercise. Less exercise. Meditation. ASMR videos. A favorite stuffed animal from childhood. From all of it: _nothing._

If anything, the boys were better at finding their own solutions for sleep deprivation. The few times Prompto got a full night’s sleep only came when he ran the dishwasher at bedtime and curled up in front of it, right on the kitchen floor, with a pillow and blanket. The gentle swishing of the water was comforting, he said, but he couldn’t sleep on the kitchen floor forever, and audio recordings just weren’t the same. Noctis found no relief aside from random power naps on the couch in the middle of the afternoon or heavily medicating himself with over-the-counter sleep aid, which Ignis tried to prevent at all costs.

Sometimes Ignis wanted to give up, but how could he? Noctis and Prompto needed sleep every night to function, and every night they didn’t sleep well made the situation worse. How could Ignis give up when the solution would never come on its own?

So, nevertheless, it was another weekend, and weekends meant spending an afternoon out with Gladio running around the city to hunt down whatever supplies and ingredients Ignis needed for his latest possible remedy.

“So, what’s it this week, Iggy?” Gladio asked, folding his arms back behind his head as they walked.

“A weighted blanket,” Ignis said, not looking away from his phone for a moment.

“A weighted blanket?” Gladio stopped in his tracks. “As in, a blanket heavier than that monster quilt you tried to get them to use?” Gladio asked, throwing his arms down to his sides. “Iggy, there’s no way. Prompto’ll overheat in less than a minute and Noctis moves so much that it’ll get all fussed up anyway. You’ve got to have something else.”

“My grandmother made that quilt, thank you very much,” he quipped. "And I believe these are designed differently for that very purpose. They’re supposed to provide pressure to the user, not warmth.”

Gladio hummed in response, unconvinced, but Ignis continued on, undeterred.

“I’m still not sold on the sizes—should I get one large one for them to share, or two individual sized ones? I’ll have to see what the store has in stock…”

An hour or so later found them back home in their shared apartment, the monstrous navy blanket unpackaged and spread out over the sofa.

“It needs airing out or it will smell just like the factory it was made in,” Ignis said, spritzing his new purchase with deodorizer.

Noctis and Prompto, like Gladio, were unconvinced.

“I dunno, Iggy,” Prompto intoned, picking up a corner of the blanket and bouncing its weight in his palm. “It looks…kinda warm for the summer.”  

“You know Specs won’t let up on it, though,” Noctis added, not glancing up from his phone but wrinkling his nose at the artificial smell of the deodorizer. “May as well give it a shot, Prom.”

Ignis set the spray aside. Dark circles hung under the Prince’s eyes. Between the lack of sleep and time he spent staring at screens, it didn’t surprise Ignis in the least. The idea of a simple blanket solving one of those problems sounded farfetched, but all Ignis could do was try.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Prompto said, coming around. He supposed one night wouldn’t be too bad. He continued to examine the blanket, massaging one of the weighted sections between his fingers as he tried to decide if he liked the texture.

 

* * *

 

Since moving in together—and adjusting to a relationship together—the four had, after many different sleeping options, settled on two rather large, separate beds in the same room. Bed partners swapped at random depending on who was feeling frisky that night, or who had to get up early for work. The arrangement was difficult at times, but the flexibility had its benefits. That night was a perfect example.

“All snug?” Gladio asked, straightening out the blanket that Noctis and Prompto had pulled up to their chins.

“As a bug in a rug,” Prom answered, chipper despite the late hour. Noctis said nothing, still shifting his limbs around and trying to make sense of the new sensation.

“It’s alright if it doesn’t work out,” Ignis was quick to add in, fidgeting with a corner. “The comforter’s folded up in the closet. You won’t upset me if you decide to switch back for tonight.

“Aww, no worries, Iggs,” Prompto propped himself up, reaching out a hand, and Ignis gravitated toward him. He cupped the back of Ignis’ neck and pulled him down for a peck on the cheek. “You work so hard at this, we’ve got to at least give your ideas a chance. Right Noct?”

As they parted Ignis looked over to their other partner, awaiting a reaction.

“This…actually feels kind of nice…”

“Does it?” Ignis asked, a tiny smile working its way onto his lips.

“Yeah, like…” Noctis sunk further under the blanket, until just his nose and eyes peeked out. “Like a nice hug.”

“Well, we’ll see how it ends up in the morning, right?” Gladio grasped Ignis’ shoulder and steered him towards the other bed. There was no use keeping the boys awake if they were trying to get them to sleep, really.

“Goodnight Noct, Prom,” Ignis blurted out over his shoulder. In truth he wanted to stay by their bedside all night, just waiting for the moment they would fall asleep and _finally_ rest, but Gladio was right.

More goodnights were exchanged until Gladio and Ignis were settled into their own bed. While Gladio’s snores began within minutes of lying down, Ignis’ mind had other ideas.

While Noctis and Prompto were the usual cause of Ignis being awake at all hours of the night, Ignis’ own mind was the culprit this time. Despite trying to relax and take deep breaths and shut his eyes, he couldn’t stop all the thoughts racing through his head. Would this blanket really work? Were Prompto and Noctis just humoring him? What if they really hated it and it _wasn’t_ helping? Could he return it tomorrow? He still had the packaging and the receipt. But what would they do next, if this failed?

Ignis curled up on his side, his chest aching at the thought of another failure. He didn’t know how many more ideas he could come up with until they were forced to resort to professional help. And not that the help wasn’t welcome, but…professional help so often ended in medication, and medication led to weird, sometimes harmful, side effects, and if it was harmful was it really worth it, in the end?

Ignis never kept track of how long he worried himself sick, thinking in circles.

At some point, long after they’d all lain down, Gladio snorted and rolled over in his sleep. He didn’t settle back down until he wrapped an arm around Ignis’ waist, snuggling closer to his partner in his half-aware state.

“Hey, why’re you awake?” a gruff, sleepy mumble drifted between them, soft enough to not be heard beyond their bed. Ignis glanced to the side and was met with warm amber eyes.

“Just…restless. Haven’t fallen asleep yet.”

Gladio hummed in understanding. They all had those nights, after all. Silence, save for the ticking of an analog clock on the wall, passed between them.

“You know who isn’t awake?”

He looked to Gladio, unvoiced questions looming in his eyes. Gladio pointed a thumb behind him, gesturing to the other bed, and Ignis propped himself up to see over Gladio’s side.

For one of the few times in his life, Ignis couldn’t believe his own eyes. He even got up out of bed to confirm it, grabbing his glasses off the nightstand and circling around to get closer to their partners.

Both Noctis and Prompto were fast asleep.

They were out like lights. Like babies. Like rocks.

“Like angels…” Ignis whispered, still in disbelief. It worked. At least for one night, it worked.

“C’mon Iggy,” Gladio interrupted himself with a yawn, but beckoned him back to bed with a hand. “Can’t stare at ‘em _all_ night.”

Ignis glanced to Gladio, then back to the boys in bed. Noctis was on his back—his most common sleeping position to avoid and aches and pains—while Prompto was curled up on his side. They weren’t cuddling per se, but Noctis’ head was tilted toward Prom, his nose just barely nuzzled into Prompto’s shoulder.

“Yes, just a moment…” Ignis said, even though he wanted so much longer. He couldn’t capture the moment with a camera, but he wanted to imprint it into his memory forever. He hadn’t seen them so relaxed in…he didn’t even know how long.

The need to sleep won out in the end. With a final glance back at his boys Ignis returned to his own bed.

“Congratulations,” Gladio smirked, pressing a kiss to Ignis’ temple as he slipped back under the sheets. “What’ll you do, now that you’ve conquered insomnia?”

Ignis paused for a long moment before answering.

“Well…it’s worked tonight, but it may not work tomorrow. I have a feeling we’ll have to keep making adjustments. The weight of the blanket, for example. One of them might want it heavier or lighter, and that company makes other things…lap blankets, travel blankets. We might want to try some of those.”

Gladio hummed in agreement as he laid his head back down. He slung an arm over Ignis’ middle, so perhaps the same weight that put Noctis and Prompto to sleep would calm Ignis’ ever wandering mind.

“And I really worry about their medications, Gladio. Prom’s been self regulating so well…I don’t think he,” —he interrupted himself with a yawn— “I don’t think he needs to take it as much as he does…”

Gladio slipped Ignis’ glasses off his face and set them aside, but continued to listen to his rants and worries. He hummed in agreement until Ignis began to string together fewer and fewer words. Once the other man’s eyes started to flutter shut Gladio moved his hand up to card through Ignis’ hair. The comforting motion worked like a charm and, for the first time in a long while, their entire bedroom drifted into a peaceful sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think, and maybe what your experiences are with weighted blankets and other sensory items. Personally I'd love to try one. They sound really helpful!  
> [my tumblr](http://ferix-writes.tumblr.com/)


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